Miley’s provocative pose with Dad should raise concern

My daughter is an adult, and I have no granddaughters.

Perhaps that is the reason I learned about Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana later than a writer in my position should have. I mean there is no excuse for an alleged entertainment writer’s failure to know about Hannah Montana.

I apologize and I promise to review her movie when it arrives in 2009.

But who knows where her star will shine by then?

Maybe her daddy, Billy Ray Cyrus, knows. But more of Billy later.

I first saw Miley on an “American Idol” segment. I was impressed. She had poise, great stage presence and a fine voice. A real natural. And only 15. She could be the next Judy Garland or maybe our next Britney Spears, who is no Judy Garland. Despite her addictions and otherwise messed-up life, no female child star has come close to equaling the talent and promise of Judy Garland.

After we see Miley act in a movie or two, we’ll know if she is a Garland bouquet or a wilting lily. What we know now is that at 15, Miley Cyrus is enduring her first bout with scandal and embarrassment. The source is a spread in Vanity Fair. One alluring photo features Miley covered by a blanket. Her back is bare and she is looking warmly into the camera. Some observers might call it a sexy pose; Miley is quoted as saying that it is “artsy.”

No big deal?

If you will allow that the photo is deliberately sexy, I do not know what to make of a 15-year-old star who embraces that image. We all have seen younger girls on hot summer days in attire that is more alluring. Girls have told me that they go to tanning salons to look “sexy,” a term they throw off with nonchalance that approaches innocence. Some claim that they do not comprehend what many boys and men think when they appear in tight shorts and a bare midriff.

I understand the pressure on parents of girls who desire this mode of fashion. How much freedom should Mom and Dad give to their daughters when it comes to modes of dress? “Look what the other girls are wearing” is a powerful narcotic for parents who do not want their daughters to feel like sartorial outcasts. What does a father think when he first sees his baby girl resemble a Vanity Fair cover?

Maybe this alluring mode of dress is all innocence, a counterpoint to boys who curse with abandon, managing to sound more depraved than they really are. Maybe scared or intimidated parents of girls need to say: “This, too, shall pass” and let them dress as they choose.

A little bit unsettling

But if you choose to accept Miley Cyrus’ photo shoot as artsy, there is something to arouse concern, and that is the familiarity captured in the shoot with Miley and her father. See the video on Vanity Fair’s Web site and you will note Billy Ray cozying up to his teenage daughter. As Rebecca Traitor aptly describes the pose in a Salon piece, it’s the father with “his hand resting on her inner thigh as he nuzzles her forehead and she gazes up at him adoringly. The camera skims up her legs as her dad simultaneously throws his arm around her protectively.”

This does not strike me as innocent or natural, no more than the shot of Hulk Hogan resting his hand on his teenage daughter’s derriere as he applies sun lotion. That, too, you can see on a Web site.

How are we supposed to react to those videos? How would you respond to Billy Ray if he told you or me to get a life? Are we prudes? Is registering an affront at the sight of a father and 15-year-old daughter looking at each other longingly a sign that dirt is in the mind of the beholder?

A pretty teenage girl dressed alluringly is one thing. Photographed with her dad in a suggestive pose is another thing altogether. There’s reason to wonder what our acceptance of it portends. It is, at the very least, worth thought and discussion.